Health and Medicine on Display: International Expositions in the United States, 1876–1904 (review)

In several respects, Julie Brown’s discussion of health and medicine on display at international expositions marks a welcome advance beyond other world’s fair books. She contends that there was an international display culture evident not just in the United States, but most notably also at Paris expos. One fair influenced the next, as seen in the reproduction, adaptation, and improvement of ways of displaying medical and health knowledge and practice. Furthermore, Brown explores the crucial but often hidden (especially from modern eyes) perils of hurried and dangerous construction and inadequate planning, which resulted in scores of accidents and deaths. In a day when a great many Americans were not yet vaccinated against smallpox, when typhoid and other infectious diseases were common, and when drinking water was often dangerous and contaminated, public health concerns were paramount. For the visitor to Chicago in 1893, Paris in 1900, or Saint Louis in 1904, beyond finding accommodations and arranging for transportation, worry about the safety of drinking water was a serious concern, particularly in Chicago and Saint Louis.

Furthermore, Brown clearly sees the link between national reform agendas and municipal betterment projects and the displays of up-to-date public health and medical practices that appeared at these fairs. In other words, she sees fairs not as one-time blockbusters or festivals of new knowledge so much as a series of events where public health officials, reformers, scientists, and doctors made repeated efforts to communicate with a large American public attending these events. As she puts it, “Expositions remained the only site where health and medicine were represented as integral to modern social and civic reform and as part of the larger sphere of science” (p. 197).

The copious illustrations enable the reader to see what Brown describes. Her comments on the growing attractiveness of visual aids in exhibit culture are especially valuable. She also notes the growing competition from “scientific” amusements elsewhere on the fairgrounds (such as baby incubators) that sometimes contended for audience attention. Even with an extraordinarily close reading of the sources and detailed descriptions of planning problems and personalities, the book remains lively and interesting.

While Brown acknowledges the lure of other sorts of exhibits, she does not really engage the question of audience. Thus the meaning of a display is recorded as the intention of its promoters rather than any reactions of the audience. Though there is very little evidence of audience reaction, the illustrations tell us something important. The busyness and density of materials presented to the visitor probably made them more accessible and interesting to the expert than the casual layman. There is also some suggestion in her narrative that displays of anatomy, reconstructions, dioramas, and models outdrew other forms of medical presentation. But we are left wondering why this might be so and if the average patron saw or learned very much given the intricate, and in some cases, dispersed nature of most exhibit subjects. Did visitors have time for more than a hurried glance at these exhibits or anything like a comprehensive experience with the multiple displays, for example, on public health problems? Given that most visitors probably went several times (the notion that there were 27 million visitors at Chicago and 19 million at Saint Louis is a persistent confusion of turnstile admissions and different patrons) it is possible that the most interested among them might have learned something considerable about some of these issues.

What is important and fascinating and right about Brown’s book is her description of the enthusiasm of public health advocates, reformers, doctors, and scientists for expositions as a form of propaganda for their views. We do not know if their optimism was really rewarded, but their continuing efforts created a fascinating and developing culture of display.